Before the Premier League season began, Manchester United was widely tipped to finish in the top four of the table and Ipswich was expected to be relegated. One week doesn’t change anything, but it proves that the Premier League can be unpredictable.
The Tractor Boys are already off to a good start in their survival fight after taking down one top-half team in Sunderland in Matchweek 1, and they’ll have another opportunity for a giant-slaying on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET (4:30 p.m. ET) at Old Trafford. Hull City already slayed the Red Devils, so it’ll be up to their fellow promoted side to do the same.
Manchester United is a -235 favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook to take all three points, and Ipswich is +550. There are +380 odds that the teams will draw.
Below, I’ll break down this potentially table-flipping affair and provide my favorite bet.
Manchester United vs. Ipswich Town Best Bet:
- Man Utd Win and Both to Score (+195): Although the Tractor Boys did an excellent job reinforcing their attack by bringing in Daizen Maeda, Emersonn, and Julio Encisco during the transfer window, Manchester United got pretty unlucky to put only five of its 21 shots on target against Hull City, and the Tigers defended them with more voracity than Ipswich did Sunderland.
Manchester United vs. Ipswich Town prediction, pick
The Red Devils started their season with a match against the Tigers, who had already elicited comparisons to the infamous 2007-08 Derby County team that set the Premier League record for fewest points in a season, and it wasn’t pretty. Buoyed by a screaming home crowd, Hull City sat back and struck on the counter, scoring twice in the first half and holding on in the second half for a famous victory in its return after 10 seasons away from the top flight. Of course, the season is long, and the Tigers are still far more likely to go down than Manchester United, but it served as a wake-up call to Michael Carrick’s men. Meanwhile, Ipswich left it late in a back-and-forth game with Sunderland, and while the match realistically could’ve gone either way, it was substitute Jack Clarke who broke through in the end for the hosts. As with Hull City, the Tractor Boys are nowhere near safe and the Black Cats aren’t particularly likely to be relegated, but starting on three points is always a critical boost for survival hopes.
Of course, on paper, Manchester United has the far more talented side. Though the Red Devils’ biggest loss was midfielder Casemiro, who left to join Lionel Messi at MLS side Inter Miami, they brought in a better and younger player in former Aston Villa man Youri Tielemans, as well as former Chelsea youngster Andrey Santos. They also retained Premier League Player of the Year Bruno Fernandes, who just set the league’s all-time assist record, bringing back the core of the team that scored the third-most goals and actually managed the most shots on target per 90 minutes last season. Manchester United still managed to produced 1.83 expected goals’ worth of chances in the opener, mostly in the second half, and it’ll likely put more than five of its 21 shots on target. Additionally, the Red Devils returned every important member of their defense, which conceded the fifth-fewest goals in the Premier League last season, and to their credit, they did some things decently in their opener, allowing the seventh-fewest expected goals and the fourth-fewest shots, but winning ground and aerial duels at rates south of 45% won’t cut it. In the end, Carrick’s men were just too sloppy on the business end of defense just like they were in the attack, as while the Tigers’ first goal was a little fortunate, Nobel Mendy’s header was definitely savable. But the season is long, and Senne Lammens put together a respectable season in 2025/26; he’ll be better.
Ipswich Town has a far different side than it did the last time it played at this level, in 2024/25. The Tractor Boys made massive offseason investments, signing Emersonn from Toulouse, Daizen Maeda from Celtic, and Issa Diop from Fulham. Julio Encisco also made his return to Portman Road after spending the 2025/26 season in Ligue 1 with Strasbourg. All in all, Ipswich had the third-best attack in the Championship in 2025/26 and upgraded its all-around squad, and it showed in Matchweek 1, as the Tractor Boys managed just 0.03 fewer expected goals from 11 fewer shots than Manchester United did despite playing against a team with one of the best defensive records in the division last season. In the opener, they weren’t very clinical with their passing, but they did score from one of their two fast-break opportunities, striking effectively on the counter. It’s a strategy that could work well, given their defensive capabilities; they limited Sunderland to just 0.66 expected goals’ worth of chances in the opener, winning ground duels at the fifth-highest rate, and just 45.45% of the Black Cats’ shots came from inside the box. They were also excellent at playing the offsides trap, catching Sunderland in an illegal position four times. Playing on the counter is a strategy that could work as long as the back line remains compact and goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen is up to the task, which he wasn’t against the Black Cats.
As encouraging as Matchweek 1 was for Ipswich Town and as disheartening as it was for the Red Devils, it’s important not to read too deeply into one match. The Tractor Boys didn’t take advantage of their set pieces against Sunderland, the only scenario from which Manchester United conceded, and they didn’t defend with quite as much voracity as the Tigers, who managed 14 more clearances than any other team and won ground duels at the second-highest rate. I do believe Ipswich Town has everything it takes to stay up in the end, but the Red Devils had an anomalously poor performance and got somewhat unlucky. I like Manchester United to win and both teams to score.
